This site uses cookies from Google and other third parties to deliver its services, to personalise adverts and to analyse traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. Read our policy.

Senate eliminates EPA chemical risk assessment programme

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) embattled Integrated Risk Information System (Iris) programme, through which the agency identifies and characterises the health hazards of chemicals in the environment, will be eliminated under a spending bill for 2018 released by the Republican-led Senate on 20 November. If enacted, the legislation also would reduce the budget of the EPA’s chemical safety and sustainability programme by $15.4 million (£11.58 million).

Meanwhile, Democratic leaders in the Senate expressed concern that this legislative proposal would impose the Iris workload onto the recently-reformed TSCA programme, which was not designed to accommodate the breadth of its responsibilities. They also say that the bill would allow the EPA to implement an additional $68 million in programme cuts with no restrictions, and that the measure includes funding to enable the Trump administration to cut a full quarter of EPA’s current staff of scientists and public health experts.

Any 2018 appropriations bill has to pass both chambers of Congress before it can be forwarded to the White House action, and there is recent movement on the House side to do away with the Iris programme.

In October, Republican leaders on the HSST panel wrote to the head of the EPA and expressed concern about the scientific merit of past Iris assessments, including those on trichloroethylene and chloroprene. They suggested that these two cases represent just two of the more ‘well-document failures’ of the Iris programme to take into account additional scientific information, and request a briefing on the matter from EPA staff.

Have your say

Only registered users can comment on this article.

The elimination of any part of bloated Big Government bureaucracy is a godsend. The E.U. would be wise to follow suit. The U.K. has a golden opportunity with Brexit to eliminate redundant programmes just like this.